Jenny Collins shares her research about the Sisters and other Religious who nursed the sick during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
On Holy Thursday Pope Francis prayed for the dead as well as for those who represent the “saints next door” during the current coronavirus pandemic. Of late Francis has commended the courage of people who risk much to help those who are suffering.
More than 100 years ago our forebears faced an even more devastating experience — the 1918 influenza pandemic. Then, many of the “saints next door” were Catholic Sisters. At great risk to themselves they left their convents to look after the sick at a time when our health system could offer little treatment.
Flu Reaches New Zealand
The 1918 influenza pandemic arrived in Aotearoa-New Zealand in the final months of WWI. Soldiers, many wounded in body and spirit, were returning home. In military camps, overcrowding and atrocious weather combined with the arrival of the flu to create a deadly mix — and 286 men died. Young people were most affected, particularly men aged 20-40 years. Over the following six weeks influenza spread throughout our country, taking the lives of more than 9,000 people.
My family has memories of the 1918 pandemic. Aunty Maureen was born in Christchurch just as the flu arrived in that city.
It was a harrowing time. People hid in their homes, the streets were empty, hospitals were unable to cope and bodies were stored in basements because the morgues had run out of coffins. Businesses and public buildings were closed; there were shortages of food and coal.
I can imagine my grandparents huddling inside their house in Hornby as the flu raged across the city.
By early November, the country was in crisis. The health authorities knew that they didn’t have the resources needed to cope with the increasing numbers of sick. So the Catholic Bishops offered their schools as emergency hospitals and asked Catholic Sisters to nurse the sick.
Call to Sisters, Brothers and Priests
Many hundreds of Sisters from Congregations across the country answered the call. In an inspirational act of leadership they set up and ran hospitals in cooperation with the health department. And they provided food and assistance for families in city, town and rural communities. Teaching brothers, priests and volunteers helped the Sisters in the makeshift hospitals and in the community.
Care in Christchurch
Catholic Sisters in Christchurch worked under the leadership of the legendary Nurse Sibylla Maude, a pioneer of district nursing, who set up a relief depot in Cathedral Square.
The Little Company of Mary, known affectionately as “the Blue Sisters”, offered Lewisham their 40-bed hospital. The Sisters rigged up a tarpaulin over the hospital balcony, slept there and converted their rooms for patients. Nine Sisters, more than half of the community, caught the infection. One, Sister Frederick Reynolds, died. To keep the hospital going, Sisters of Mercy, Mission Sisters and Marist Brothers came to help. At one point the Marist Fathers took over the admission of patients.
In Dunedin
From November to February the schools were closed and many became temporary hospital wards. Sisters who were normally teachers cared for victims.
The Sisters of Mercy in South Dunedin set up a crèche at St Patrick’s School to look after children whose parents were unwell.
Mother Theophane McKain and Sister Leocritie Duggan, two Mission Sisters in Kaikoura, nursed victims of the influenza before catching the infection themselves. Mother Theophane died on 3rd December.
Semi-enclosed Congregations, such as the Dominicans, went out each day door-to-door caring for the sick. Each morning for a month Mother Gonzales Wall and Sister Mechtilde Mace from Teschemakers College near Oamaru went out to Maheno. They moved from house to house cooking meals, washing patients and making beds before being driven home at the end of the day, changing their clothes in a farm building and then going straight to bed.
In Auckland
In Auckland Bishop Henry Cleary offered the two Vermont Street Schools in Ponsonby as a temporary 100-bed hospital under the charge of the Sisters of Mercy.
Sister Mary de Pazzi McAlister, the matron, had had nursing experience during an outbreak of the bubonic plague in Europe. Fellow Sisters from around Auckland joined her. Few of them had any nursing training but, dressed in white gowns and masks, they treated the stricken men who were the first flu victims.
As numbers of sick increased, the convalescent patients were transferred to St Joseph’s School in nearby Grey Lynn where they were looked after by Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
During the six weeks of the pandemic at least 254 patients were treated at the Vermont Street hospital and 85 patients died there.
Several Sisters of Mercy, including Sister De Pazzi, contracted the flu virus. Fortunately they recovered. However, Sister Teresa Norbet, a Sister of St Joseph, died of the influenza after nursing patients at the Grey Lynn hospital.
In Māori Communities
Māori communities were hit hard; they had more than eight times the deaths of Europeans.
Dame Whina Cooper remembered that people in Panguru were dying on the side of the road with no one to help. The Sisters of St Joseph, who had just arrived in that community, turned their new school into a hospital. Sister Sixtus French recalled the Sisters making soup and other nourishing drinks for patients in the hospital and around the whares. Local Māori provided meat and vegetables. Eight people died in the hospital and two Sisters came down with influenza.
In Wellington
The Marist Fathers offered St Patrick’s College in Wellington as an emergency hospital where Sister Genevieve Sexton, the matron, the Sisters of Compassion and volunteers cared for 91 men.
Twenty-one Sisters came down with the influenza and Sister Natalie O’Meara died.
Everyday during the outbreak the Sisters of the Sacred Heart sent a cooked dinner to the Home of Compassion — enough to feed 24 people.
The Sisters of Mercy also ran a convalescent hospital in St Anne’s parish hall Newtown in Wellington. Sister Chanel Burton, the Superior of St Catherine’s Convent Kilbirnie was a volunteer at St Patrick’s hospital. She caught the flu and died on 30 November.
In Hastings
In Hastings, Sister Thecla McLoughlin, a Sister of St Joseph of Nazareth, cared for children whose parents were unwell. She became ill and died on 7 December.
Toll on the Sisters
Many Sisters caught the flu as a result of nursing the sick although we don’t have exact numbers.
So far I have found the names of eight Sisters who died during the pandemic. Most were young women. There are no plaques recording their efforts — Sisters’ graves generally record just a name and date of death.
However, the Kaikoura community erected a marble cross acknowledging the life of Mother Theophane. It’s simple inscription reads: “Pray for the soul of Mother Mary St Theophane who died on December 3rd 1918”.
And Māori communities have long memories; Panguru recently celebrated the special relationship with the Sisters of St Joseph that began during the pandemic.
Let's Remember
Now, more than 100 years on, what is the legacy of these women? In 1918, Catholic Sisters served flu victims with a courage and compassion that moved and inspired those around them. Their actions transformed anti-Catholic sentiments that had been pervasive at that time. As Pope Francis has said, may we “not lose our memory” once today’s crisis is past. Let the saints next door continue to inspire us.
Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 251 August 2020: 20-21